Improvement in modes of covering, lighting, and ventilating areas, vaults



2 Sheets8heet 1..

T. HYATT. Mode of Covering, Lighting, and Ventilating Areas,

, &c.

Patented July 30 'vaults Win (ax/Key.-

MPETERS, PHOTILLITHOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON, D c.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2..

T.HYATT.

Mode of Covering, Lighting and Ventilating Areas,

' Vaults; 8L0.

. Patented July. 30,1878.

NFETERS. PNOTO-LITMOGRAFHER, WASHINGTUN, D c.

UNITED STATES Pawnee-em.

THADDEUS HYATT, OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN MODES OF COVERING, LIGHTING, AND VENTILATING AREAS, VAULTS, &c.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 206,57], dated July 30,1878; application filed July 22, 1878; patented in England, October 2, 1869.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THADDEUS HYArr, of the city, county, and State of New York, am the inventor of an Improved Mode of Covering, Lighting, and Ventilating Areas, Vaults, and similar underground spaces, applicable also as a footway, which invention was patented by me in England on the 2d day of October, 1869, No. 2,869, but, as to the parts 1 hereinafter described, illustrated, and claimed,

has not as yet been used in the United States.

The English patent aforesaid describes a beam-platform or area-covering composed of a foundation or castiron frame, made to receive panels or plates of iron with an asphalted surface, these plates not only being asphalted, but the face of the iron frame containin g them, especially when the external portions or borders of the frame were designed to form a coping in place of stone. In addition to the area-covering, the footway of the street, between the area and curb-stone, is also described as in some cases being formed after the area-covering model as a roof over the space below, as well as a footway for the publie; and an asphalted iron slab, with a hole to receive the vault-cover, is described as a substitute for stone.

The object of the asphalt, as explained in the text, is to prevent slipping and two kinds of asphalt are mentioned-viz., natural and artificial natural asphalt, as is well known, being a bituminous concrete or limestone infiltrated with bitumen, and artificial asphalt being any combination of tar or bituminous materials with sand, gravel, and the like, the latter being adapted to an iron surface mod erately rough, or even smooth, according to the thickness of the material, and the former being adaptable only to a surface formed to give or produce side adhesion or support upon lines vertical to the face of the iron plate, such, for example, as would be formed by casting the face of the plate in the form of cells of hexagon or other shape.

The face of the metal construction, when made to be asphalted, is described as thus made: The iron plates or panels, combined with the metal frame to form the area-covering, are described as of three kinds-one where the apertures are set with glass, another where they are left open to let in air, and a third, which is solid.

Where set with glass, it is the metallic portion of the surface, not the glasses, that is covered over by the asphalt; and where the light-holes in the plate are not blocked with glass, but are left open to let in air for ventilation, it is still the metallic portion of the surface, not the air-holes, that is covered over by the asphalt; but where the plate is solid iron, there the invention is described as the asphaltin g of iron plates employed as covers for areas, vaults, or other underground spaces, and as copings in foot-pavements, &c.

Figure 1 represents a section of a street footway, A being the footway, A the curb-stone, and A" the carriage-way of the street. B is an asphalted iron coal-hole-plate slab, made with a hole for taking in coal, and covered by the coal-hole plate or vault-cover G. a a is an annular gutter or channel formed in I to carry off water to the curb through the straight gutter b.

Fig. 2 is the same in crosssection. c c are the air-holes of the vaultcover. These holes are surrounded by the rings (I, or curbs, to preventsurface-water from getting through them.

Fig. 6 is a view, in cross-section, of one of these curbed holes, where e 0 indicate the coatin g of artificial asphalt.

Fig. 3 represents an area-coy'erin g or beamplatform; D, the cast-iron frame, and numbers 1, 2, and 3 the iron plates or panels, number 1 being a glazed plate, 9 9 being the glasses or bulls-eyes.

Fig. 5 is a cross-section of the same on the line a: a'. The port-ion shaded by dots represents asphalt. Number 2 represents a plate having no glasses, the holes being left open for ventilation, like the vault-cover (J. Number 3 is a solid iron plate asphalted.

Fig. 4. is a crosssection of the whole platform on the line 3 3 Fig. 7 is a plan, and Fi 8 a cross-section, of the same on the line 2 z, and represent an illuminating-plate made with a cellular surface, through which light-holes are made, as indicated by the dotted circles is It. E E are the bulls-eyes or glasses that block the lightholes. The parts shaded by dots are the as phalted parts, this asphalt being natural, and, as seen in Fig. 8, rising to the level of the glasses, which are represented as flat-faced, but may be slightly convex.

Fig. 9 represents in plan, and Fig. 10 in cross'section, another form of cellular face, made by cross-ribs i i, the glasses E E being held by the asphalt filling, (shown by the dotted shaded parts,) and the asphalt being held by the metal cross-bars i A model of this invention was sent to the Patent Office at VVashin gton, l). 0., by me about the years 1850-52, and remained in the model-room until the first clearing out sale of models. I also made illuminntirig-gratings of this kind, except that- 

